Amazing Gracie
From Chicken Soup for the Soul: What I Learned from My Dog
By Marla Anne Bernard

When our heart is open, everything we do becomes love.
~Mimi Novic

In 2011, my husband David left a long and storied career, a move I never saw coming but was delighted to see. He was offered a lucrative new position, and the timing seemed appropriate. I had recently retired, and it all felt right.

The plan was to take a week’s vacation before David started his new job. We went to Arkansas’ scenic Boxley Valley, a 260-mile drive from our Kansas City home. We rented a farmhouse at the end of a long road shared with a small church at the entrance to the drive. It was a bucolic setting, complete with a pasture full of cows and their “guard donkey,” a friendly fellow who enjoyed the apple slices I fed him when he meandered to the fence. It was just the sort of place to unwind and enjoy early fall in the Midwest. (Keep reading)